safeguarding @ phoenixplace

To ensure that all students are safe, we work in conjunction with partnership agencies, staff, parents, visitors and members of the community to support our safeguarding procedures. We take our responsibilities for safeguarding children in our care seriously.  

Many students have expressed their appreciation of the amount of support that the school has given them.

We work closely with our Safer Schools Team (Metropolitan Police) and they act as a first point of contact between the school and the police.

• Police Constable (PC) Nikki Wright is the Safer Schools Police Officer for PhoenixPlace.
• There are now over 450 Safer School Partnerships operating throughout England and Wales, with police officers and community support officers based in schools to work closely with staff and students.
• PC Wright is a familiar, trusted face around the school - working closely with students on issues that affect their lives both inside and outside of the school
• PC Wright can be contacted by email at Nikki.Wright@met.police.uk 
• Alternatively you can telephone the the school on 020 7703 7189 or email info@phoenixplace.co.uk

PhoenixPlace recognises the difficulties that young people and their families face in today’s society every day. We are committed to offering equal opportunities and support to all of our students.

The school runs activities, workshops and educate through PSHE/RSE lessons to raise awareness during the school year to support students’ understanding and management of potentially unsafe or concerning situations including bullying, online safety and other specific safeguarding issues that may arise.

Support and mentoring schemes are made available to students to equip them with the required tools to make the right decisions and develop independence whilst keeping themselves safe by knowing how to access help when they need it.

Please see below the specific safeguarding concerns that could arise and some links to guide you.

At PhoenixPlace  we have put in place appropriate safeguarding policies, procedures and responses for children who go missing from education, particularly for those with persistent absences.

All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to a full time education which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. Local authorities have a duty to establish, as far as it is possible to do so, the identity of children of compulsory school age who are missing education in their area.

It is essential that all staff are made aware of the signs to look out for and the individual triggers to be aware of when considering the risks of potential safeguarding concerns such as travelling to conflict zones, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and criminal exploitation.

All schools must inform their Local Authority of any student who fails to attend school regularly, or has been absent without the school’s permission for a continuous period of 10 school days or more, at such intervals as are agreed between the school and the local authority. Download the Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities.

At PhoenixPlace we have a culture of safeguarding. As a school we do not tolerate any form of sexual harassment or violence. 

As per government guidance in 'Keeping Children Safe In Education 2021', PhoenixPlace works on the assumption that sexual harassment and violence ‘could happen here' and insists that no member of our community ever treats sexual violence or harassment as 'banter' or 'a part of growing up'.

In order to ensure our culture of safeguarding is consistent and embedded throughout, the PhoenixPlace puts a series of proactive measures to reduce the risk of such incidents. Along with regular reinforcement, staff and student training and consistency, the key strategy is education, specifically of appropriate behaviour through our PSHE/RSE programme.

Staff and students are trained to ensure they can recognise potential signs of abuse and how to report them. We aim to educate students to understand sexual harassment may appear in many forms, and all members of our community have a duty to report any possible sign of sexual harassment or violence. 

These may include but are not limited to: 

• Sexual comments, such as telling sexualised stories, making lewd comments, making sexualised remarks about clothing and or appearance and calling someone sexualised names
• Sexualised “jokes” or taunting 
• Physical behaviour, such as; deliberately brushing against someone, interfering with someone’s clothes
• Online sexual harassment. This may be standalone, or part of a wider pattern of sexual harassment and/or sexual violence
• Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes images and/or videos 

Sexualised behaviour sits on a continuum with five stages:

• appropriate – the type of sexual behaviour that is considered 'appropriate' for a particular child depends on their age and level of development
• inappropriate – this may be displayed in isolated incidents, but is generally consensual and acceptable within a peer group
• problematic – this may be socially unexpected, developmentally unusual, and impulsive, but have no element of victimisation
• abusive – this often involves manipulation, coercion, or lack of consent
• violent – this is very intrusive and may have an element of sadism

When the school is made aware of an alleged incident of sexual harassment or violence we take every step to ensure the student making the disclosure feels supported. The school then completes a detailed investigation and works with our local safeguarding partners to arrive at a fair conclusion, before recording the incident and outcomes on CPOMS.